Out This Week 2/22

Topping this week’s list of new releases is the second album by the young Adele Adkins, known really as just Adele, whose 21 marks the age at which she recorded it, and whose current single, “Someone Like You,” just made history by shooting up 46 spots to #1 on the UK charts after she appeared on the BRIT awards show this past weekend. In just two years, Adele has grown from her attention-grabbing debut, 19, into what our Music Director, Don Yates, hails as “more mature songwriting and an earthy sound steeped in Southern soul, gospel and country.” Also tapping the sounds of Southern Americana, though known rather to drag it across the porch and through the swamp, are Seattle’s own The Cave Singers, who on their Jagjaguwar debut (and third overall) actually begin to wander away from the more backwoods sounds toward a more muscular rock sound.

Also in record stores today, you’ll find a wide range of other new releases worth checking out. From San Juan, Puerto Rico, Davila 666 dig deep into the dark corners of 50’s and 60’s rock on their second album. Though based in New York, the DJ duo Los Chicharonns draw from their Dominican and Danish backgrounds for their multi-genre sound on their fourth full-length. From the Northwest, Portland’s The Builders and the Butchers start a gothic hootenany on their third foot-stomping album while two Seattle bands return with their latest: the doom drone pioneers Earth and the melodic pop band Hotels. From La La Land, sisters Piper and Skylar Kaplan have changed their band name from Pearl Harbor to Puro Instinct and have released their hazy debut. Toro Y Moi expands upon the dreamy “chillwave” sounds from his home in Columbia (not Colombia)… as in South Carolina… and adds live instrumentation and occasional funk beats to his typically atmospheric melodies. And for Cotton Jones‘ latest release, the prolific couple, Michael Nau and Whitney McGraw, have returned to their familiar “glowstream” after having lived away from their former home town of Cumberland, MD, but continue to experiment sonically on the Suicide Squeeze released EP, Sit Beside Your Vegetables.

And there’s plenty more besides, including the awaited fifth album from French indie pop band Tahiti 80; a remix album of Gil Scott-Heron’s album from last year, I’m New Here, by Jamie xx; the latest from Portland chamber pop collective Loch Lomond; a rootsy album from Philly’s G. Love produced by The Avett Brothers; an acoustic EP from another French pop band, Revolver; and much more! Check out Largehearted Boy’s list for more and sample these tracks before heading out to your favorite record shop:

Adele – Someone Like You (Live in Her Home)
from 21 on XL/Columbia

ALSO – True (MP3)
from Music Belongs In The Background (self-released)